Your step dancing was terrific. The kids did a pretty good job learning some of the steps, too!

May News, 2013
End of the year assessments are underway right now. Students will soon be taking the last reading test and the DRA, a different kind of reading test that helps me assess reading ability and reading level. They also just started a battery of tests in spelling and will soon complete a cumulative math test. The final writing prompt will be given tomorrow.
Photographs of our field trip to Look About Lodge have been attached. Thanks to our P.T.A. for subsidizing this trip and paying much of the cost.
A couple reminders:
Spring cleaning? Our last auction is just a couple weeks away. Your gently used items are much appreciated.
The second grade Feast is May 22nd. This is a fun event with delicious food. Please plan on attending if you can and let me know if you did not receive a flyer explaining the details.
Our last Scholastic book order is due next Friday (May 17th). Please place your order on-line using this code: https://orders.scholastic.com/HB3WB
As you are well aware, summer will come and go so very quickly. The single best thing you can do with your child over the next few months is to read and be read to (both fiction and non-fiction text). I do provide a summer activities packet for anyone requesting it, but it simply does not replace the one-on-one reading that is so beneficial to your soon-to-be third grader. Please just let me know if you would like a copy of this packet.
In early fall, the children will be taking another important reading test. It is really important that the “summer slide” be kept to an absolute minimum. (The summer slide is the drop in reading ability that occurs over the summer because of little or no time spent reading.)
Thanks for all you do,
Mr. Davis

April News
4-24-2013

Next month, the children will be taking a cumulative math test to assess what they have learned in math for the year. I wanted to give you a heads-up about the test and to encourage you to practice for it when you have the chance. The test will be assessing the following:

• Telling time to the nearest 5 minutes
• Adding basic addition and subtraction facts with 100% accuracy (use of fingers is okay)
• Adding and subtracting 2 and 3 digit numbers (just like the homework being sent home each week)
• Counting mixed change
• Making change from a $1.00 (something costs 87 cents, you pay with a $1.00…)
• Identifying fractional parts (shade 1/3 of a square, identify that 2/8 of the rectangle is shaded,…)
• Measuring and estimating objects using inches and centimeters
• Equivalence (2+___+5 = 5+5; 14+3 = 11+___; 11-___ = 6) – problems just like the homework sent home each week.
• Identifying cubes, cylinders, spheres, cones
• Identifying numbers on a 100’s chart
• Identifying even and odd numbers on a 100’s chart

Five minutes a day a few days a week reviewing a concept or two will make a great difference in your child’s confidence. Should you have any specific questions about what to practice, please do not hesitate to ask.

As always, please continue to read aloud to your second grader as often as you can. Briefly discuss unfamiliar vocabulary while you are reading.

The reading comprehension activities sent home in the homework packet mirror what we’re doing in school to prepare for the end of the year reading test. Please continue to encourage your second grader to reread and support their written evidence by underlining or circling the parts of the story that have the answer. This doesn’t work for theme (theme is the lesson the author is trying to share with the reader) or main idea questions (main idea is a sentence that tells what the whole story is about), but it does work for just about everything else.

Solon’s D.A.R.E. officer, Officer Felton, is visiting our room several times this spring to talk about safety and making good choices. She interacts with the children really well and they get the chance to ask her lots of questions about her role as both a D.A.R.E. officer and a police woman.

As the end of the year approaches, little things often come up about your child’s classmates and the things they may or may not be doing that are bothersome. Please let me know about these things right away so that I can be a proactive as possible.

Thanks for all you continue to do every day for your second grader.

A few reminders:
• Completion of homework is really, really important. The packet is sent home every Monday.
• Ask your child if he or she needs new pencils and erasers.
• Please consider visiting and sharing about your family’s culture and ancestry.